It looks like they're planning to skip N. Minneapolis and go deeper in Brooklyn Park instead of west towards Maple Grove. I think it would be a mistake to skip N. Minneapolis, but I'm sure the suburbanites wouldn't want to go through that area.

The choice of Brooklyn Park for a northern route really shows the influence of major corporations on the decision making process for this type of infrastructure. In the Alternatives Analysis, every Maple Grove route scored better than every Brooklyn Park route on just about every metric. Latest data shows the Maple Grove route has about 3,000 more jobs in the vicinity than the Brooklyn Park route, and even if Target does expand its workforce there (at the expense of Downtown Minneapolis), there is otherwise much more vacant land around the Maple Grove route than the Brooklyn Park route.

Personally I'd rather Bottineau not be extended beyond the beltway, but if it is, it should be placed in such a way that it serves more jobs and attracts more TOD (hopefully that otherwise would be unclustered development).

I thought the documents showed that the Maple Grove branch would be both cheaper and attract more riders, but the justification for Brooklyn Park was that there "was more developable land" and that gravel mining in Maple Grove could go on for a long time.

I like Maple Grove for the access to the regional shopping and entry-level jobs, but the Brooklyn Park branch would offer service to North Hennepin Community College and some apartment buildings. The area around 610 and Broadway could also become a major office center in the future, but the same could be said of Maple Grove.

I'm not one to trip over myself defending suburbanites, but in this case I'm pretty sure there's a lot of opposition to the Northside routing from the Northside itself. The land acquisition they'd have to do on Penn is...complicated.

This presentation shows that the Maple Grove route will attract 600 more riders per day, have nearly 900 more daily hours of benefit, cost $40 million less, and recieve a better CEI rating than the Brooklyn Park route.

The Brooklyn Park route does have two distinct advantages:
- The location of a stop at Brooklyn Bl, where there is a busy shopping center and established bus hub
- The location of a stop at North Hennepin Community College

I personally can't see a scenario in which this line actively avoids the black population by going through Golden Valley instead of North Minneapolis, and Maple Grove instead of Brooklyn Park. In fact, I see a public outcry if that were to happen -- whether the numbers make less sense or not!

I'm with ELF on this one. I have read that many people along the Penn Ave. alignment are worried about the land acquisitions. What if we switched the station placement on the preferred right-of-way. I think taking out the stop at Golden Valley Road and instead putting a station at Plymouth would give much better access to Theodore Wirth Park. This would also allow for a station closer to North Memorial Hospital. Both locations would be busy locations IMO. One of the worries, however, would be if the Plymouth Ave Stations would overlap too much with the Penn Ave Station.

If you want to complain about routing not serving the right neighborhoods, look to the feds and a funding formula that emphasizes improving the commutes of suburban residents into the core, rather than providing better access to more transit dependent markets and encouraging redevelopment.

I would like to propose a solution that could be added to the construction of either the Bottineau, the Southwest light rail line or the Interchange: build a station at Broadway and Lyndale that would connect to the Interchange. I don't think it would be too expensive, could be single tracked most the way. But with the Bottineau alignment down hwy 55 and the Southwest line abutting bryn-mar, all that's needed is a station on Broadway and you suddenly turn N. Minneapolis into a transit haven (while we're at it, throw a couple of street car lines down Freemont and Emerson).

Light Rail needs dedicated right of way. This isn't a street car. Running it along existing developed streets is a huge mess, and the fact that it's following the existing rail grade and not going through North Minneapolis isn't for lack of trying to find a viable acceptable alternative. Don't assume it's a conspiracy.

As for Maple Grove -- have you been there? There is nothing about its development pattern that makes it attractive for being served by rail. Yes, there are a lot of jobs there, but they're separated by vast tracts of parking lots. Brooklyn Park at least holds out the promise of still becoming a dense node of jobs and housing.

MNdible wrote:Light Rail needs dedicated right of way. This isn't a street car. Running it along existing developed streets is a huge mess, and the fact that it's following the existing rail grade and not going through North Minneapolis isn't for lack of trying to find a viable acceptable alternative. Don't assume it's a conspiracy.

As for Maple Grove -- have you been there? There is nothing about its development pattern that makes it attractive for being served by rail. Yes, there are a lot of jobs there, but they're separated by vast tracts of parking lots. Brooklyn Park at least holds out the promise of still becoming a dense node of jobs and housing.

Agree. I think BP COULD become the first truly integrated, multi-cultural super suburb in the Twin Cities, and built sustainably with moderate densities and businesses that are part of the community/neighborhood. Ironically, the suburb that comes to mind when I think about what Brooklyn Park could be is Schaumburg, IL (ironic because Schaumburg is often considered a suburban nightmare, but it's very diverse and multi-cultural and there's a ton of businesses there). Like, I see no reason why Brooklyn Park couldn't house 125K-150K people at full build-out (which, I'm guessing is about 5K ppsm density).

I drove down Penn today (with Paula Pentel, a candidate for County Commissioner that you should vote for if you live in District 2) from Olson to West Broadway and counted 90 houses on the east side of the street, about the same amount on the other side. Not sure where the "130 homes" number comes from, though that could be counting duplexes as two houses.

People are moving back into the urban area. Any politican that does not support transist will be voted out very fast. The writing is on the wall for getting the most bang for the buck with the number of people they can transport. One has to look at the future and not just what is happening today. We are right now in a dark ages period of small short sites stupid thinkers, instead of those leaders that gave us many great amenitys.